Associate Director, Social Media Activation

About the role

WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. With exceptional talent, trusted data and intelligence, and world-class partnerships – all united by our pioneering agentic marketing platform, WPP Open – we help clients navigate change, capture opportunity, and deliver transformational growth. WPP Media is WPP's AI-driven media operating unit, bringing together media, data, and partnerships to deliver creative personalisation at scale. Connected through WPP Open and powered by Open Intelligence, clients see exactly where, how, and why their media investment is working. For more information, visit wppmedia.com.

The Associate Director of Social provides strategic leadership and operational oversight across paid social accounts. This role is responsible for driving campaign quality, guiding client relationships, and mentoring team members to ensure all social media initiatives align with client business objectives.

Responsibilities

• Planning & Execution: Accountable for delegating and approving campaign strategy, forecasting, and measurement/testing plans to ensure they align with client goals.
• Quality & Performance: Serve as the ultimate escalation point for campaign launch, campaign QA, data integrity compliance, and post-campaign analysis (PCA).
• Direct career development, coaching, and growth plans for direct reports (Supervisors and Managers).
• Oversee team bandwidth, staffing efficiency, and workload utilization to ensure high performance and prevent burnt-out teams.
• Client Engagement: Act as the primary activation lead and key escalation point for senior client stakeholders.
• Relationship Building: Build strong relationships across key media partners and internal teams, while resolving complex account or scoping issues independently.
• Workflow Optimization: Drive process enhancements and best practice adoption across paid social workflows.
• Partner with cross-functional and regional teams to identify new platform opportunities, share learnings, and showcase top-tier work.

Qualifications

• Strong expertise in client communication, escalation handling, and paid social platform best practices.
• 2+ years of direct line-management experience.
• Proven ability to guide, mentor, and QA the day-to-day work of junior/mid-level team members (experience managing nearshore or offshored teams in LATAM is a plus).
• Demonstrable experience in senior client-facing roles, serving as a primary point of contact, leading strategic client calls, and setting clear expectations.
• Hands-on Platform Experience: Deep, practical familiarity inside major paid social native platforms (LinkedIn, Meta, X/Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest, etc.). Must have direct experience working inside platform back-ends, not just high-level oversight.
• Proven ability to track, manage, and optimize large-scale media budgets across multiple social platforms.
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills with the confidence to drive high-level strategic conversations with senior client executives.
• Ability to act as the primary escalation point for campaign or platform issues, providing swift and thoughtful solutions under fast-paced agency timelines.
• Location: Based near a WPP office (e.g., Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Atlanta).

Benefits

Our comprehensive benefits package reflects this commitment, including competitive medical, group retirement plans, vision, and dental insurance, significant paid time off, preferential partner discounts, and employee mental health awareness days.

Pay

The base salary range for this position at the time of this posting is indicated below. Individual compensation varies based on job-related factors, including location, business needs, level of responsibility, experience, and qualifications. US Pay Range $75,000 - $180,